Saturday's reasonable to-do list

It's actually never reasonable, the stuff I want to accomplish on a Saturday, but here's the stuff I'd like to have happen. Oh, but first, here's a totally unrelated picture from a couple of weeks ago. We were getting some weather coming in, and I snapped this on my way to work. That's the building across the street from us.

It was super swirly. 

OK, for today:

1. Start some seeds! I just read something from a gardening blog I follow (A Way to Garden) and while I'm sure she's not the only one saying this, she had a nice little interview with an expert about how to keep seeds from getting leggy. After reading it, I won't be putting my seedlings in the basement and think the grow light is enough. I'll put them in my bedroom, in front of the west-facing window, with the light and the heat mat. We'll see if that does it this year. 

2. Pull up carpet in back hallway. I was at Home Depot yesterday to get something to pull up the wooden ruler-like carpet strip under the carpet, and found a smallish curved tool that is supposedly made to do the job. I will report back.

3. (maybe) Paint trim in back hallway. I need to retouch a few areas, and also go over the white trim back there. I thought the kid might like to help.

4. Hike. It's going to be a beautiful day, so Mr W and I will get out some time this afternoon and go for a hike. May or may not bring the dog, as only some trails allow them off-leash. 

I think that's enough. I need to work on making a bunch of new clay tiles for the brooch order I received, and that will be a few hours of work there. 

Happy Saturday!

I like the last part best

I agree with the sentiment of this xkcd comic. But I really identify with the nerdy group who are talking about giant squid. Am seeking more such groups to chat with. 

The December 2012 Sweater Bonanza

I buy most of my clothes at thrift stores and garage sales. Not underthings, but the overthings. Sweaters, shirts, pants, sometimes shoes. If it doesn't work for me after I bring it home (although I do try most things on), I release it back into circulation by putting it in the donation pile. I admit I have bought a couple of things I thought might look good on me because they were really cheap. I seem to forget that olive is not my color. I tend to wear cardigans to work a lot during the winter. The lab is really warm sometimes and we have to wear lab coats and gloves, so it's nice to easily take off a layer when I'm in there.

I have to be in the right frame of mind for shopping this way, because one does have to sort through a lot of unacceptable things. But I look around online for clothing occasionally and can't quite bring myself to spend $50 on a pair of jeans. This is better for the planet anyway, and I do like the thrill of the hunt.

Someone mentioned that a thrift store in the next town south of here had good stuff, so I drove the 20 minutes and did some shopping there this morning.  They had a 50% off sale on items with certain tag colors, so I got most of my items for half price.

And did I find some items! Holy moly, I hit the sweater bonanza. Above you can see the SEVEN sweaters I bought after I soaked them in a gentle no-rinse soap and have laid them out to dry in my basement. Everything does seem to have a certain smell to it from the thrift store and I like to give everything a wash before I wear it. It's funny, four of the sweaters are from Christopher and Banks, a store whose clothing I associate with teacher-wear. But I like the styles and the fit so it works for me.

I also found two tops, a pair of shoes and a pair of snow boots. The snow boots I think are snowboarding boots. I don't snowboard, but I think they will work just fine for $5, thank you.

How about you, do you shop second hand?

My cooking prayers answered

Regular readers of this little blog know I can't get it together (ever, really) to pass along recipes like some better-organized bloggers. But I was at the library yesterday, and found a whole book with several good recipes in it, so I thought I'd pass that along.

When I was younger, I can remember spending a lot of time in the library. I guess some of it was with my mom, and some by myself. I do remember having the luxury of time such that I could walk the aisles of nonfiction and pick out things that looked interesting. 

I brought Mr W to the library yesterday. It's slowly transitioning over, but he'll pick out 15 books he's read before if I let him do all the choosing, so I spend some time selecting books I think he'd like. We have found a lot of good ones like that, and say what you want about sequels, it is a really good way to get a kid to pick up a book and begin to read without too much fuss.

We found a bunch of good ones for him, then I went upstairs to the nonfiction stacks and did the walking around thing. I didn't feel like I was getting anything good, but I was wrong. The stew book (link is to see it on Amazon) has a BUNCH of straightforward recipes whose leftovers can be frozen, which is a high priority for me. Lots of cuisines, too. 

I also got a book on clay, one on casseroles, a Rick Steve's guide, "The Best of Europe", and a book on remodeling small houses. I guess I did pretty well at the library yesterday. Being able to wander around the stacks was a real treat.

Pilgrimage

Last night I watched the movie The Way, with Martin Sheen. It's about a straight-laced, follow-the-rules kind of guy who gets a call that his wandering adventuring son has died on his very first day of a pilgrimage that starts in France and goes through northern Spain to the sea called the Camino de Santiago (The Way of St. James). This link shows the route and has info.

Sheen's character flies to France to identify and claim the body, and decides on a whim to take the pilgrimage in his son's stead. The movie is about the people you meet along the way and how we make choices about how we live our lives. I really liked it and recommend it.

This is a picture I pulled off the internet (link below). Amazing scenery, with this pastoral-small European village feel - really nice. The movie has made me think a bit about folks who have the wanderlust in a big way, those that most definitely don't, and the rest of us in between.

I found myself thinking about my assumption that, sure, I'm in good enough shape to do an 800 km walk over the course of a month. Well, I think so. And thinking that I could do this kind of thing if I really wanted to is an assumption I carry with me that makes me feel better about not doing it. I've always figured I'd get to Europe someday. As I've mentioned before, it's something I don't want to do by myself; I'd like to go with the wonderful guy I hope to eventually meet. 

But I feel sort of this nagging feeling that I should be making contingency plans so I don't wait too long and miss the opportunity. This thought isn't necessarily new, but I figured I'd put it down on the blog. If I hit 50 (3 years from now) and still my match is taking his sweet time, I'm going to Europe for 2-3 weeks on my own. Saying that makes me feel better.

It's a big world out there, that like it or not we are part of. Ack. I'm a little embarrassed to say I've never been further out of the U.S. than Canada, and that was 20 years ago. Life kind of happens, you know? It's more in my nature to do things locally, I guess. I was chatting with someone the other day, saying how, when you own a home, you could work on home stuff during almost all of your free time and not be finished. Ergo you need to back off a bit sometime, yes?

Hmm. I need to cogitate on this a bit more.

image from here

More flower pictures

I bought a packet of burgundy sunflower seeds and one of them, after a slow start, has grown into a behemoth of a plant. Beautiful flowers, but the thing is probably 8' x 8'. The bees love it, and the flowers are a very pleasant dark red color.

Here's a view from the side of the plant. You can see the one flower that's facing the camera in the upper right 1/4 of the picture. It has more blooms now, and seems like it might tip over, but I think it'll be OK. Maybe next year I'll stake them out so they stay a little straighter. 

If you're interested in winning the bracelet of your choice from my Etsy site, here's a link to the blog post at my other blog that has the details. You can enter up until 9 pm Mountain Time Wednesday.

Above and beyond

I was in an unfamiliar parking lot yesterday, pulled into a parking space too far, scraped the underside of the front end of my car, and bumped the curb. No worries, it's an old car, and I wasn't concerned that there would be any damage. I went on my merry way.

Fast forward to me leaving work at the end of the day. Is that a scraping noise now, from the front of the car? Hmm. The road leading to my building has a low speed limit, so I'm listening to it as I'm driving out. Not good. I stop and look under the car (which my mechanic would be proud of - at least I checked!). Nothing. I drive on, stop again and look again because it's getting louder. Still nothing.

My mechanic has had Graycie the camper van for about a month now, waiting for a part to come in, so I can't just switch cars and deal with this later :-). I call him, and he proceeds to DROP EVERYTHING, including working on the car of a couple whose old VW rabbit is overheating and they want to go out of town.

We drive it, he hears the sound, which by now has diminished, but is still there. He takes off the front tire, causing a bunch of rusty stuff that he said wasn't a safety issue to fall out, puts the tire back on, and we drive it again. Apparently I jarred some stuff loose in the parking lot, and it got stuck in a place where it made the noise. Meanwhile, he's talking about the weight he's lost, his wonderful daughters and his recent bout of gout. Such a great talker - I admire people who can converse so comfortably (but not yak on and on).

All in all, it was about 45 minutes of his time. He didn't charge me. I need to do something. I think a batch of my homemade brownies is in order. It seems inadequate, but he wouldn't charge me.

We also discussed the possibility of them putting Graycie on consignment. We'll talk more about it when I pick her up next week, but I think that's the way to go. It's worth 5-10% or so of the asking price to do it that way, IMO.

Button pitch

I'm taking a sample of my buttons to a fabric/sewing store downtown today to see if the owner is interested in buying some. Yes, I know a few don't have holes. I'm going to use those for bracelets, and wanted to give some samples of color blends I've made.

It's been a busy week with getting Mr W to his Percussion camp every day. I've been working on my laptop while he's in the school and actually getting a good bit of stuff done, so I don't feel like I'm wasting that time. I also attended a volunteer meeting for the next Ignite Fort Collins, which is fun and I'm happy to help out with them. Banjo practice was last night, and Mr W and I went to one of the music stores in town and got him a rental Percussion kit. The thing comes in a suitcase with a handle, on wheels, which is good because it easily weighs 30 lbs. It's got a snare drum, a thing you and I would call a xylophone, sticks, a stand, a practice pad, all in one zipped up case.

It all makes me appreciate that my kid has a dad that is involved. I have taken advantage of the half-time parenting schedule by getting my grocery shopping and Target runs largely done when Mr W's with his dad. Since his dad's been out of town for the last couple of weeks, it's been a different thing. I'm grateful the kid can stay home by himself ("I'm not a little kid, Mom") for an hour or so at a stretch.

But things are good. I've been playing board games with people from church who get together weekly and have really enjoyed myself. It's largely the same people every week, so I'm getting to know people a little better and that's good. I joked last week that one of these days I'll play a game for the second time, and then they had all better watch out. They play so many different games that for the half dozen or so times I've attended, we've always played something different. I sincerely appreciate that a couple of them have taken a lot of time at the beginning to explain things.

Did you hear of this story? The one about how hard it is to make friends when you're over 30? I confess I didn't read it, because I feel like I've had some success through simple persistence. It did make me think about my efforts though, and feel appreciative for the friends I have made at the dog park, my Spin class, through playing the banjo, and by playing board games. Getting out and doing stuff.

Lucky me

I've had a streak of luck lately, the kind where I have won stuff. A few weeks ago, I saw a link to a contest sponsored by Blue Marble Biomaterials, a company that makes earth friendly chemicals (it's a pretty cool effort, IMO) where they asked for examples of people using upcycled materials in things. I sent off a picture of one of my bracelets, and got a nice reply saying that they'd open up all of the entries to voting by the public and the winner would get a $150 prize from hipcycle, a website dedicated to selling upcycled items. 

I got an email from them last week saying that they only got three entries, so they decided to split the prize and I'm going to get a $50 gift card to Hipcycle. Nice! I'm sure I can find something to like there.

Then yesterday, my friend D and I volunteered to help assemble and sew plush monsters for a company called Monster to Love, run by a family who donates one monster for each one sold. That's the kids in the picture, and we worked on the orange, red and yellow monster in the lower right corner. I don't sew well, so I pinned pieces and that was very satisfying. They're soft and squishy, a bit expensive, but I love the idea. The event took place at one of our super cool stores downtown, called Mama Said Sew, which sells yummy fabric and offers classes. 

While I was there, I looked at their offering of buttons, and saw that it was kind of sparse. Perfect for my polymer clay buttons! So I asked the shop owner if I could come by with a few samples, and she said sure, and gave me a time next week that would be good. Yea! I'm working up two new sets (4 styles each, three sizes each) to show her, plus I'll take the other ones I've worked on. She said she could either do it on consignment or buy them from me outright. Yea! again.

It gets better. I got an email last night from the guy who owns the Monster to Love company saying I had won the door prize, a $50 gift card to Mama Said Sew. Whoop! I don't sew, but have lots of friends that do, so it'll find a good home. 

There are no original ideas

After a busy few days of social stuff, it was nice yesterday to stay out of the heat and work on crafty stuff at home. I had seen some cool polymer clay buttons on Pinterest and wanted to see if I could recreate them with what I had on hand. Many polymer clay people use canes, (here's a link to some pictures showing how one is made) and the process leaves a lot of trimmed ends behind. Some clever clayer came up with a way to use these bits and ends to make new things. These are the Pinterest buttons (and the link to their source):

Not having done really any work with canes, I tried to get some bits of coordinating color, so I made a blend, which turned out to be two blends because it got too wide for my pasta machine to roll out.

I then used my cutters and cut out a big and a small square and rearranged the pieces. This was to get a lot of color combinations in a small space.

I then cut one of the blends into little pieces.

And applied those pieces to a sheet of black clay. This was pretty time consuming, but I wanted to get a nice distribution of colors. I might make longer pieces next time.

I then rolled the whole thing once more through the pasta machine to smoosh it all together, and then cut out the buttons. 

I still need to poke the holes (except for the test one in the bottom left corner), but I'm pleased with this first go. I'll put a layer of glaze over them to shine them up a bit, too. I love how creative ideas build on other creative ideas. 

We're havin' a heat wave here for the next week or so. I've got my two window air conditioners in place, one in the living room and one in my room, and last night alternately baked and froze until I got the settings right. We actually got some rain last night. It's so rare lately and very much needed. The fire is still going. 83,000 acres burned, almost 200 homes lost. It's moving north and west now, and there are still many homes in its path. 

We saw it

Did you get a chance to see the transit of Venus, either live or online? After seeing only a small glimpse of the annular solar eclipse a few weeks ago and feeling like I was depriving my child of significant scientific event viewing opportunities, I promised myself we'd try to get out to see the transit.

Our local astronomy club had telescopes set up at a park/natural area on the way south end of town, and as the time to leave drew closer, there were clouds in the sky and a little bit of rain. But then the sun peeked out and I decided we'd give it a try.

On the way, I tried to explain what I had heard about why the event was significant. It only happens twice every 100 years or so. There was one in 2004 and the next won't be until something like 2117. Previous transits (I'm still not clear on how they know this stuff) were significant because they helped scientists measure the size of the solar system. Until then, they didn't really know how big it was, and got the answer from triangulating measurements taken from various points on Earth.  I love that scientific history stuff. Apparently it was quite an undertaking. The shot below was taken in 1882.

The folks with their scopes were helpful and accommodating. We looked through several, and one person had the image projected on a piece of paper, so several people could see at once. We saw sunspots, too, and when the view was at its best, saw some solar flare activity. All in all worth the trip, although after we were there for about 10 minutes, the clouds obscured the view.

The Sifter

If you haven't checked out the site called Twisted Sifter, I'd encourage you to do so. They have wonderful photographs of all sorts of things. Here's one from today, taken in Taipei.

Wow, huh? Doesn't look like Colorado....

Jewels

How about this corn? Beautiful. Here's the link to the story I saw about it.

From the story:

"No, this isn’t Photoshop or a gemstone-studded trinket—just an ear of corn. Seedsman Greg Schoen of theSeeds Trust got this “Glass Gems” corn from his “corn-teacher,” a part-Cherokee man in his 80s."

and

"But kernel color is a fascinating—dare we say, colorful—topic in the annals of genetics research. For one, why are there so many vibrant colors in a single ear of corn? You don’t usually see flowers of different colors on a single tree."

That's right. Come for the corn, stay for the genetics.

Smoke

I took the dog out this morning and the air smelled like smoke. There's a wildfire burning in our local canyon that started yesterday afternoon. So far it's been pretty well behaved, but it's always weird to go outside and have it smell like a campfire. It's far enough away that there is no threat here, but the smoke does make it to town. It's been really dry, so it will probably be a busy fire season. It makes me think about the people that live up the canyon, where there are few ways to get out in a hurry. Not sure I would opt for that location.

I've been sort of solitary the last few weekends without Mr W, which lets me get some stuff done around the house, but often makes me feel sort of isolated. Not for long, though. Summer is gearing up and there's lots going on in the next few weeks. I'm volunteering for an old-time music festival that is in a couple of weeks and organized by some of my dog park friends (the ones who play at the weekly jam). I'll work for four hours doing ticket and merchandise sales and get to attend the rest of it for free.

Ignite Fort Collins is this week, and I'm volunteering for that as well. I'll be doing mundane stuff like cutting up pizza and running around, but I also get to attend for free and I like the idea of the event a lot, so am happy to help out.

Then there's graduation parties at the end of the month. Such big accomplishments for both the kids and their parents (my dear friends), I'm looking forward to participating in the celebration.

And speaking of celebrations, Mr W has a "Continuation Ceremony" on his last day of school. I'm a little ambivalent about this, but will certainly attend and applaud loudly. I was going over my budget, as summertime childcare expenses are double what they are during the school year, and realized that this is the last summer I'll be spending that kind of money on childcare. Once they're in middle school, they are on their own more. Yikes.

Now it's buttons

I think the hunt for bracelet stuff is a significant part of what makes it fun for me. I was poking around eBay, and saw some nifty old buttons that would work on my bracelets. Let me tell you, if you've got any interest in old buttons, there are tons (OK, pounds and pounds) of them on eBay. It's really something. It's the same kind of thing as with the old watches. These are things that most everyone had, and some folks had a lot of them. It seems, then, that there is an almost infinite supply.

Here are some that I'm looking at:

Nice mother of pearl buttons. I love the luster.

OK, I'm not seriously considering this one, which is a whopping eight pound of buttons, but felt compelled to share. The current bid is $24.50 and it's got a day to go yet. I don't know where I'd keep them all, so I'm generally setting my sights on smaller lots. The thought of becoming a button collector doesn't really appeal either. But wow.

I couldn't copy the larger version of these, but they look really interesting. Metal filigree over color. 

And I probably can't use these, but they sure are pretty! Glass buttons. I'm like a crow - hey, is that something shiny?

It's graduation day for the local university, and kind of grey and potentially drizzly. This says to me quite clearly: "Garage Sales" and "Plant Store". And other garden-y and crafty stuff. Hope you have a good weekend too.

A good weekend

It was a busy and good weekend. A friend (someone I used to date) was in town and it was great to catch up with him. Funny how things were really familiar and comfortable, yet placed into a different context now that we aren't dating. He travels extensively for work, and I worry about the toll it takes on him, despite doing a job that he loves. I'm all "well, you could try this", "take a class" "get an ap to get organized for the writing you have to do" blah, blah, blah. I feel like I'm all advice sometimes. It's more important to accept people for who they are.

He commented at one point that I seem content. I would have to agree, although there is an internal dialog about the partner search that dribbles on, and it sometimes gets kind of loud in my thoughts. It's clearer than ever to me that taking up the banjo and starting to make bracelets were/are an outlet for some of the mental/emotional energy I was devoting to finding Mr. Right-for-me. It's a wise use of free time.

Speaking of the banjo, he was gracious enough to come with me to a special jam that was going on with the usual Tuesday night folks, in honor of a music festival downtown. There were only six of us - three fiddles and three banjos, and it was a lot of fun to play in a little more relaxed (and slightly slower paced) environment. I bought a finger pick for my right index finger, and tried that out. I really like it, I don't have to strum so hard. More importantly, though, because the nail on that finger has never responded well to being used so much when I play banjo, using the pick might let it grow out a bit. I might get a thumb pick while I'm at it, we'll see.

And finally, I sold another bracelet from the Etsy shop. Wahoo! I've been spending some money on Facebook advertising, and someone who saw my ad ended up buying a bracelet.

Passing it along

Have you heard of Pinterest? It's a little hard to explain, but it lets people organize and share images from the web. I like that the link to the original post stays with the image, so it's easy to find out who originally posted the image. One of the measures of success, I think, is to see if anyone shares, or "repins" your images (called pins).

My SIL is on Pinterest, and I thought I'd join to see if I could drum up bracelet business. I saw other images I thought were interesting (I think that's how it's supposed to work...) so I posted those as well. Here's one I found in one of my favorite blogs, from Today's Document, done by the National Archives:

The caption reads: "Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Company. View of row of operators. View of chairs showing type of chairs used by telephone company. 04/07/1927"

As of this morning, it's been repinned 86 times. It's so interesting to me what appeals to people. Why this photo? I think vintage and retro are inherently appealing, so maybe that's it. And maybe because it shows women working (all with their cute short hair styles) and that makes us feel good too. 

Impulse purchase

Banjo legend Bela Fleck is playing in Fort Collins tonight. We were talking about this when I was over at my banjo instructor's house last Saturday playing music. I confess I'm not familiar with his work, but I know that he is an innovator and has been around for a while. I downloaded their current album this morning. :-)

When I got home that night, I went to the website to see if there were tickets left and it looked to me like there was but one left. Taking that as a sign, I bought it. Impulse purchase. Money's always a little tight for this kind of thing, but I figure it'll be worth it.

Our fox

It was a good weekend. Due to schedule changes, I had Mr W two weekends in a row. His dad wanted to take a trip. My social schedule has been open enough *sigh* that it was no problem for me do this. As I understand it, I'll have the next two weekends kid-free. There was a time when that much solo kid duty made me a little crazy, but the kid is pretty low maintenance these days.

We saw The Lorax movie on Saturday and I liked it. I had read about rampant product placement, but I didn't see it. Funny how that works. I haven't been seized by the desire to buy anything out of the ordinary, but we'll see. The ending had both Mr W and I tearing up a bit. Awww.

Yesterday, I hauled him to a Percussion Ensemble concert at the university's performing arts center. Why they have these things at 2 pm on a Sunday I have no idea, but it worked for us and we went. It's kind of pricey, with adults at $12, but kids were $1 so it seems reasonable. A few years ago, the university bought the old high school, and added the performance hall and a couple of smaller theaters. It's so nice! The acoustics are such that when the faculty person came out to introduce each piece, his voice carried in this magical way, right up to our ears. They mostly played marimbas and vibraphones, with other accent sounds. Best of all, they let us come up on stage afterwards to look at the instruments and didn't mind if we banged on stuff a bit.

I did not know this, but the mallets are covered with yarn. I took a picture with my phone to document this crafty tie-in. I'm glad we made it to the concert. Mr W was pretty attentive, I think he at least grudgingly accepts that I like to do stuff to broaden our horizons.

Oh, but the fox. Our neighborhood has a fox, who slinks around and is wiley and fun to spot. S/he is pretty bold as well, and is regularly out during the day, running down the alleys and crossing streets. I was thinking how I have no qualms with our fox, as I don't have small animals that are outside. My neighbors keep chickens, but their coop is very secure. If I could just have that fox eat the last mouse that occasionally makes its presence known inside my house, that'd be great.

Anyway, this morning I was taking Sally out to do her business first thing, and saw the fox standing on the sidewalk in front of the neighbor's house. I don't know, it was probably 50' away. Sally sees the fox, and instead of going bananas and woofing all over the place, she gives a "hey, I see you" woof and goes and does her business. The fox, for its part, sits on the sidewalk. Just plants its furry behind on the concrete and watches us. I actually did laugh out loud at how comfortable the fox is with its habitat and its fellow canines.

Short list

I've never seen the movie, but I hear now and then about things that are on people's Bucket Lists. I'll say at the start that mine is incomplete, a work in progress. I used to think about it in terms of travel, but I think travel is only part of it. It's experiences that I could have without going far, too. Things I dare myself to do, or think I should try at least once. Skydiving isn't on the list.

Certainly traveling to Europe someday is on the list. I've pondered traveling by myself. At this point in my life, the desire to do it isn't stronger than the desire not to have to do it by myself. I spend enough time alone, I don't want to travel solo as well. So, Europe. Someday, with someone or a small group. I really want to see the castles, cathedrals and museums. 

But the thing that actually appeared in my mind recently as a BL item was going to a TED conference. From their website:

"Each year, the world's leading thinkers and doers gather for an event many describe as the highlight of their year. Attendees have called it "The ultimate brain spa" and "A 4-day journey into the future, in the company of those creating it."

This year's conference is going on now, and since their blog is in my feed, I've been seeing a steady stream of wonderfully inspiring talks. I'm not sure why it's so expensive, but the cost to go to a TED conference (they do a bunch of different types and themes) is somewhere between $2,000 and $7,500. Out of my range unless something happens, like me saving for a few years of it. Since they are tapped into technology, there are ways to view talks, and simulcasts and the like that cost much less money. But I'd like to have the experience someday of feeling the energy of being around so many creative people.

Someday.

In other news, Mr W and I are planning on seeing The Lorax this weekend. It's funny, I thought he might think it too childish for himself, but he wants to see it. I remember when I worked doing nature education programs back in Ohio, we'd read the book often. It's message is still relevant now. Maybe more so. It's interesting how things go in cycles. We as a society tackle a problem, things are better, and then we collectively sort of forget what got us the problem in the first place and we start doing it again. Anyway, I've heard good things about the movie, and am wondering if it will have any motivational benefits for reminding kids about the benefits of a cleaner environment. As opposed to the corporate greed thing... ahh, don't get me started.